ObamaCare and Your Physician

Scott Gottlieb:

The 60% of doctors who are self-employed will be hardest hit. That includes specialists, such as dermatologists and surgeons, who see a lot of private patients. But it also includes tens of thousands of primary-care doctors, the very physicians the Obama administration says need the most help.

Doctors will consolidate into larger practices to spread overhead costs, and they'll cram more patients into tight schedules to make up in volume what's lost in margin. Visits will be shortened and new appointments harder to secure. It already takes on average 18 days to get an initial appointment with an internist, according to the American Medical Association, and as many as 30 days for specialists like obstetricians and neurologists.

Right or wrong, more doctors will close their practices to new patients, especially patients carrying lower paying insurance such as Medicaid. Some doctors will opt out of the system entirely, going "cash only." If too many doctors take this route the government could step in -- as in Canada, for example -- to effectively outlaw private-only medical practice.

John Edwards

"Should not have run," according to Joe Trippi. Barack Obama owes a big thanks to John Edwards. He very possibly would not be sitting in the oval office today were it not for Edwards.

Obama's First Hundred Days

His polling isn't so shabby, but Dick Morris doesn't think it will last.

NYC Air Force Flyover: Feds Knew Potential for Panic

The feds knew that sending Air Force One and two fighter jets for a flyover near ground zero could very well cause panic, but they proceeded anyway, kept it secret from the public, and (the FAA) "demanded total secrecy from the NYPD, the Secret Service, the FBI and even the mayor's office and threatened federal sanctions if the secret got out."

Oh, and the stunt cost $60,000 an hour, and that doesn't include the cost of the two fighter jets.

The Biden Gaffe Machine

On the undisciplined Joe Biden:

The packaging is one of those win-win arrangements management gurus are always extolling: Biden gets to revel in his image as a fearless, forthright man of principle. The rest of the team gets to strategically deploy Biden's big mouth without feeling compelled to address his every stumble. Everyone goes home happy.

There's just one catch: If Biden speaks the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, what happens should he eventually utter a disastrously inconvenient truth--not a run-of-the-mill gaffe but something more grave and substantive?

Then he gets changed out, but 2012 is a long way off.